What We’re Going to Talk
About…
• Background
• Business
• Amelia
• Crush
• Color Thief

Trouble Impact, LLC
• Cat & Issam
• Started in April 2012!!!
• One commercial release
Tigger

Cat Musgrove

Why I Left

Issam Khalil

Why I Left

Before We Started…

Before We Started…

What We’ve Been Doing…

• Savings
• Contract Work
• Investors
– Exit strategy
Money

Forming an LLC
• Limited Liability Company
– Shields members of the LLC from personal liability for company debts.
– Only worth it if you do it correctly!
• Google "Piercing the corporate veil"

Forming an LLC - Steps
• Filing the Articles of Organization
(http://www.opal.ny.gov/)
• Request an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS
• Return the "LLC request for information" for the
NY state tax department
• Adopt a written Operating Agreement
• Publish the Articles of Organization in 2 newspapers for 6 weeks
• Fill the Certificate of Publication

General Accounting
• Keep business + personal bank account separate!
– Need Articles of Organization + EIN number
• Keep track of all money movement (use an accounting software)
– https://www.kashoo.com/
• Balance sheet of member capital

Taxes
• Tax basis
– Keep track of this to know if you can declare a loss
• Income & Loss are declared in personal tax declarations
– Schedule K1 at the start of the year to each member
• Distribution
• Estimated taxes!
• Not really that complicated

Budgeting
• Mint.com - $2500/mo
• Don’t Forget:
– Trips (Conferences)
– Emergency expenses

Insurance
• Consolidated Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act
• 18 months (10/13)
• Pay what company was paying
– ~$400 (big company)
– Ask other people who have left company!
• Can find out how much it is by looking at your W-2 (DD)

Unity 3.5 ($5,750)
Pro ($1,200 x2)
Android ($1,350) iOS ($1,200)
Asset Server ($400 x2)
Software
3D Studio Max ($3,700)
Photoshop ($20/mo)
1 yr commitment
Premiere ($30/mo)
No commitment
Visual Studio ($500)

Software
Google Drive ($5/mo) Website - Squarespace
($20/mo)
Email - Google Apps
($5/mo x3)
Domain Name - Yahoo
($40/year)

Software Totals
• “One-Time” Payments (Unity,
3DsMax, Visual Studio)
$9,950
• Monthly Payments
(Photoshop, Google Drive,
Google Apps, Squarespace)
$720/year

Conferences
Pass $1375/person (early)
Flights $426/person
Hotel $156/night (x5 nights)
= $4,382
Passes $70/person
Hotel $75/night (x3)
= $365
Indie Passes $425/person
Hotel $100/night x3
= $1,150
Hotel $75/night (x2) = $150

Conferences
Passes $120/person
Flights ~$450/person
Passes $279/person

Asset Store
• $318 - 11 months
• Average of $29/mo

Amelia vs. the Marathon
• Show Video!

Timeline

Timeline

Additional Costs
• Music
– Shockwave Sound $42 & $80
• Free sound effects, manipulated in Premiere

Additional Costs
• Unity Asset Store ($150)
– NGUI
– Memory Management
– Touch Input
• Competition Submissions (IGF $95, PAX
East Indie Showcase $50)

Hardware
• What we already had:
– iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, Samsung
Galaxy Player 4.0
• What we got:
– iPad3, Galaxy Nexus (gifts)

Prototyping
• Tried to make rough of whole game
• Abandoned prototype, moved into production
• Never identified core of the idea
• Committed too fast

Lessons We Learned
• Everything took longer than expected
• Motivation
– Time vs. initial estimate
– Working in a Vacuum
– Pressure to make “something cool”
• Playtesting
– Waited too long for first playtest
– Game too hard…

Marketing - Plan
• Facebook (152 Likes)
• Sent the game to review sites
• 3 reviews published (148 Apps, Android
Rundown, Apps Happens)

Marketing – What Went
Wrong
• Wasn’t a self-marketing idea
• Disconnect
– Visuals: cute & friendly
– Gameplay: super hard
• Dodging section took over
– Read like an endless runner

Marketing: Moving Forward
• Advertising
• Features (contacts, more reviews)
• No time pressure (single player game)
• Getting people to our website

Crush
Made for GGJ – 48 hours

Articles

Brainstorm & Prototype

Redesign

OUYA CREATE Jam
• Ten Day Jam
• Made prototype
• Finalist
• Got some fans! 
• Show Video!

The Plan?
• Currently prototyping
– Not committed to this concept
• Much longer development
• PC & Console
• Kickstarter?

What We’re Doing Now
• Issam:
– Contracting
– Systems (color, camera)
• Cat:
– Overall design
– Level design
+ scripting
– Art

@Cat_Musgrove
Cat@TroubleImpact.com
@IssamKhalil
Issam@TroubleImpact.com